Synopsis

A seemingly ordinary modern day teenager, Yuri, is suddenly whisked away to the Hittite empire in ancient Anatolia, where an ambitious queen wants the girl for a blood sacrifice in order to murder all heirs but her son, thus seizing control of the throne. Luckily, the timely intervention of Prince Kail saves Yuri from the queen's grasp. Kail promises to send Yuri back to her home, but the queen's persistent schemes to kill them both, plus their growing feelings for each other, keep those plans delayed.

I absolutely adore this manga and i'm honestly shocked that there are not many other reviews for this. I found this manga to be brilliant, not to mention thoroughly entertaining.

The story is basically about a girl who is brought back in time to the ancient Egyptian time by an evil queen. Sounds pretty bland and cheesy, but surprisingly it was rather fresh. Red River is a wonderful combination of genres wrapped all in one single manga and presented in a way that will, without a doubt, keep you entertained. Action, romance (definitely!), drama, evil sadistic
ness- this manga dipped into a lot of genres. This manga did a wonderful job pulling readers into their plots. Reading Red River, at times, made me develop a passionate desire to punch some characters, kiss them, hug them, cry for them, pull their hair, cheer for them, throw my oversized textbooks at them (and let me tell you, they’re big and heavy enough to knock a bear out), and many more.

The art of Red River was pretty old school, but still was very charming and definitely not so old school that it may repulse people who can get easily distracted by awful art (haha, i'm one). Actually, to the contrary, I thought the art was really good looking most of the times. In the beginning of the manga, where the background was still in modern day Japan, I probably would've found the art to be just satisfactory. But when the background of the story changed to Ancient Egypt, the art did a 180 and turned absolutely gorgeous. The ancient Egyptian clothes were everything that I wished it to be and more. The artist was wonderful in drawing the clothing since it was clear in the manga that the artist knew how to draw peasant clothes, flashy clothes, plain clothes, beautiful clothes, all those types, with the same charming style. Not to mention, all the characters were drawn rather well and, at many times, there were characters that were so good looking, I swooned a bit.

The characters. My goodness, I cannot even describe how much I enjoyed the characters of this manga. They were all wonderfully unique and realistic in their own way, with the addition of each having their own charm. Character development was clear in this manga and it was done extremely well, in my opinion. The main protagonist of this manga developed from a feeble young girl to somebody who could be reckoned with and I loved it! At the dark and dramatic times of this manga, it was quite surprising who was revealed to be the evil character. I mean, there were quite a number of times new evil characters popped up, and I must admit I was suspicious of everybody and to my delight and surprise, characters I didn’t expect to be evil were evil and the characters I did were not (with the exception of the main antagonists)! The main male character I found to be incredible sweet. Such a love sick puppy I found him to be, yet still strong and upholding as any character I’ve met (read about) thus making such a wonderful character to favor. Honestly, I really can’t describe how much I enjoyed this manga’s characters so I apologize that this section probably just consists of relatively useless blabber.

Maybe I’m at a lost for words, or maybe I’m just having a writer’s block, so please do your best to not judge this manga on the fact that my review is both choppy and probably not that great. But despite what my lack of writing skill may present to you, I really, honestly and purely, definitely recommend this manga; if not for the wonderful and relatively unique plot, or the gorgeous art, or the fantabulous characters, then for the pure and simple fact that this manga is such a sweet romance story, it can give you both an achy tooth and swell your heart up full of love.

Anatolia Story or Red River is one of the few manga that transcends the boundaries of time. It is indeed a timeless classic that is bound to captivate the reader’s attention. It is certainly one of the best manga out there who can cope up with the fast paced innovation in the manga industry.

Plot/Story:
The story starts with a simple girl named Yuri, she is transported to the Hittites Empire by the evil queen because her blood is needed as a sacrifice in order to kill the other remaining prince. She was constantly saved by Prince Kail, a handsome and smart young man. Prince Kail
is capable of inheriting the position of his father and is bound to be the next king. The two of them together are destined for greatness as they conquer the obstructions set by Queen Nakia and other villains!

CHARACTERS:
I personally believe that what makes this story different from any usual historical manga is the uniqueness of the characters. Without a doubt the heroine of the story is one of the bravest and strongest women in the history of manga in the sense of keen observations, perspectives, beliefs, principles and tactics. Commoners and nobles are captivated by Yuri “Ishtar” through her willingness and eagerness to help. What I admire the most is the evolution of the characteristics of the heroine “Yuri”. At first Yuri is a naïve, stupid and a helpless girl but as the story unfolds you can see the evolution of a goddess within…
Words are really not enough to define the characteristics of each character because uniqueness is apparent throughout the series. You’ll unconsciously love the characters as they respond to the challenges that awaits them. The romance in story is unlike the typical cliché in the manga because you’ll be drawn to the characteristics of Prince Kail. His unique attributes that complements the heroine brings out the incomparable passion that is bound to be tested.

Enjoyment:
The manga Anatolia Story is a classic manga that will never bore a reader. This is the only manga that I constantly read and the essence and glow of the story is still apparent. The drawing may not complement the usual modern era but I assure you that it complements the traditional innocent charm of each characters. The sequence of the story unfolds the boundary of love and governance. There are tragic moments and unexpected twist that will captivate the reader’s mind. It is one of the few manga out there who possess the undeniably complement of the genre like shoujo, historical, romance, adventure, action and drama.

In the 10 years of my life of reading manga, I have never encountered one with such absolutely pathetic characters. Don't get me wrong, the idea was good, but the characters were so underdeveloped and the obstacles the heroin had to face were so horribly thought out, that at one point you have to think "What obstacle will they throw at use now? Will it be that the girl can't be with the guy of her dreams because he's a blonde? Oh, the horror! Society shall never approve!"

I'm one to complete my manga's, since I've learned through the years that sometimes manga's get better
as you read one, but this one only got worse and it actually became excruciatingly painful to complete it. Unfortunately, I had trusted the reviews I had seen here and decided to read it. I read it after completing Fushigi Yuugi, a fellow "girl gets sucked into another world" themed manga, so I'll admit, expectations were high. But for it to have been such an epic fail...oh my.

The female lead was unlikeable. She made obstacles for herself to not be with the guy she loved most, which was annoying since it was so obvious it was just so that the series could drag out longer. What I hated most of all was the main villain, the evil queen. Her character was the worst underdeveloped character with the most pathetic evil-schemes I have yet to encounter. You would've easily thought they took her out of a Disney classic film like "Snow White" and even then, it would be an insult to Snow White.

All in all, I must say that this manga is pathetic. Do not be fooled by these reviews! It would only be enjoyable for possibly an manga newb, and even they deserve better. I mean, jeez, even Inuyasha's "Naraku" had a semi-thought out past that led him to be "evil" (was sick-fell for kikyo-gave up his body to demons to be stronger to be able to BE with kikyo-was only a half demon-wanted to become a full demon to find his place in the world-did evil things to obtain the one thing that could MAKE him a full demon)

I discovered Red River about last year- a friend of mine had it, told me it was worth a read, and she, myself, and another friend all decided to read it. The story is this: Yuri Suzuki is an everygirl who is transported back through time and space to the Hittite Empire, summoned by the Empress who wants to use her as a blood sacrifice to ensure her son inherits the throne. Yuri manages to escape and falls in with Prince Kail Mursili, third in line to the throne. She joins his court, and, through a series of odd coincidences, becomes mistaken for
the war goddess Ishtar and becomes a commander in the Hittie Empire's war against Egypt. Throughout her adventures in the war, Yuri must avoid the Empress's schemes while struggling with her own feelings for Kail.

If you find this intriguing, I feel I must warn you: Red River is not good. Red Rive is not bad. Red River is TERRIBLE.

Oh, the story is interesting, to be sure, and the artwork is top-notch, no complaints there. But the writing and characters are just so laughably BAD, and the love story central to the plot is no better than dime store romance novel trite, that anything that could have been good is just crushed under the mountain of terribleness. Kail has little to no personality, switching between "Playboy," "Serious Business," and "YURI!!!!" (You remember that commercial parodying InuYasha, where all Kagome and InuYasha do is shout each other's names the whole time? It's like that, but serious). Yuri herself is a pathetic heroine, if you can even call her that. For a commander in a legendary war, she sure is useless. Yuri is kidnapped at least once a book, cries so often she comes off as whiny instead of empathetic, and threatened with rape so often that it stops being serious and dramatic and starts being a drinking game. The interesting characters are killed off, evil, or both (with the exception of Ramsses). There are huge gaps in characters' logic, making them look like idiots. It's just... it's just BAD.

Red River isn't completely irredeemable, though: if you've been looking for a good manga to sit around, have a couple laughs, and MST with some friends, look no further than Red River (Chie Shinohara's other stuff is good for this, too). But if you're looking for a historical fiction manga that is well-written and tugs at the heartstrings... well, I hear Rose of Versailles is pretty good.